Dark Spells
Dark spells are a casting technique that involves using the blood or body parts of a person other than the caster to create energy and channel magic. Dark spells earn their name from the nature of their use; generally, there is no consent involved in dark spells, and the magic itself has very little use outside of ill-intentioned casting. Oftentimes, dark spells are misunderstood as a form of blood magic; though this is incorrect as, though they are both forms of hemomancy, there is a significant difference in their casting techniques and uses.
Generally dark spells are very powerful magics. They often use far more energy than can be obtained from the caster without becoming deadly; which is the main purpose of using another person to channel their spells. There are also different kinds of energies drawn from the lack of consent that the spells require; blood taken from an unwilling or unknowing source will work differently than blood knowingly gifted for its use in magic. The few studies done into dark spells show that inflicting things such as fear, pain, or confusion onto the victims before using them as a source of power for the spells enhances the magic and makes it more powerful. It is for this reason that dark spells are banned in all territories within the International Alliance, with severe punishments for their use or research, as it was agreed in 2,543 AE during an alliance meeting that the intention to use dark spells implies intention to harm.
Dark spells are often violent in nature with many examples of their uses being amoral. Several infamous incidents of dark spell use include:
• 906 AE, a felinic man kidnapped six women and ground their bodies, hair and bone included, into a gelatin which he used to shape into a fragile homunculus in which he trapped his late-wife’s soul. Upon his arrest, his wife was put back to rest by her family.
• 1,583 AE, a prophet in Kai’Aki became convinced that a war that would destroy the continent and locked her son in their basement, torturing him and using his pain and fear as a channel to trigger more visions so she could attempt to understand them and stop the war. She was eventually arrested, her son rescued, and her notes destroyed. Though she was initially ignored, she was later proven correct as in 1,601 AE a civil war started and in 1,603 AE Kai’Aki vanished.
• 7,385 AE, during the Coto civil war, a rebel woman was captured by the Coto government and physically altered using dark spells before being allowed a faux-escape from their prison. Upon returning to the rebel’s base of operations the dark magic within her activated and she combusted, becoming a living bio-weapon as her body burnt and released a deadly toxic gas within the smoke.
It is also believed that the first use of dark spells was by Adoration, the first dassen, when she used a child to make a shape-shifting potion in an attempt to become nurlak.